Accessioned

Available

Issued

Submitted

Other

Subject

Type

Metadata

Abstract

Asphaltenes enriched heavy oil production is increasing worldwide, and consequently, an increase of these molecules is expected. The oil industry is challenged to explore new alternatives that allow converting asphaltenes into valuable products by economical feasible routes. The solubilization in water of asphaltenes has recently received attention due to the ease of mobilization and high level of dispersion of the resulting compounds. A first attempt to post-process this new water soluble material is here undertaken via selective adsorption followed by adsorbed molecules hydroprocessing. Different solids were screened at room temperature and batch conditions, and the asphaltenes uptake from water media was quantified. A packed bed reactor setup was built to investigate the adsorption of water soluble asphaltenes at various operating conditions, and subsequently, hydroprocessing tests were carried out using three NiMo catalysts supported on the adsorbent at 2 wt%, 5 wt% and 8 wt%. The 2% catalyst showed the highest selectivity towards liquid products, whereas the highest conversion was obtained in the 5% run. The last one yielded the lightest products, whereas the heaviest were obtained utilizing the 8% NiMo catalyst. From this research, a novel process implementing a battery of packed bed reactors could be proposed for development. This process could significantly improve distillate yields and liquid selectivity out of asphaltenes, which is an encouraging outcome of this thesis.